Posts Tagged ‘Bharat Ratna’

How should a Bangalore newspaper deal with the nation’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, being bestowed on two individuals on the same day, one of them a much-loved cricket icon, the other a homegrown Bangalore scientist?

Kannada Prabha, the Kannada daily edited by Vishweshwar Bhat, deals with the dilemma by producing a front-page with two front pages and two mastheads but the same headline: one half for Sachin Tendulkar, and the other half for C.N.R. Rao.

Thankfully, Sachin Tendulkar‘s below-par performance on the Australian tour has dimmed the spotlight somewhat on the Indian media batting for a Bharat Ratna for the cricketer in quest for his 100th hundred.

In Lounge, the Saturday section of the business daily Mint, columnist Aakar Patel argues why, among other reasons, Sachin shouldn’t get the nation’s highest civilian honour:

“On 15 April 1999, just before the World Cup, Sachin Tendulkar’s car hit a Maruti 800 in Bandra. Tendulkar got [Shiv Sena chief] Bal Thackeray to telephone Mid Day, the paper I joined the following year.

“He warned them against carrying the story. This was surprising because nobody had been seriously hurt in the accident.

“Thackeray told the paper running the story would damage “national interest”.

“What was this national interest? Mohammad Azharuddin was about to be sacked, Thackeray explained, and Tendulkar was likely to become captain again. Such stories could spoil his chances. Except The Indian Express, no newspaper ran the story. In July, Azhar was sacked and Tendulkar was named captain.”